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Saturday, 29 September 2012

So at the moment I wear two pairs of jeans. I have some straight-cut 7 For All Mankind jeans I got for something like £14 from TK Maxx, and a pair of bootcut jeans from the sale racks of New Look several years ago.

Now, I'm contemplating the possibility of proper skinny skinny jeans, which are a lot easier to shove into boots. Though high-waisted stuff is in fashion, I also find high-waisted jeans a lot more comfortable too. I find myself especially partial the ones with an excessive amount of buttons...

When making outfit sets, I had to be pretty picky with the footwear, because these jeans just seem to go with everything - boots, trainers, heels, the lot. For the following three sets, I used the jeans from Next, simply because the image was biggest. I actually tried them on in the shop and the material's very nice, unlike the crappy 'denim' of the skinnies I found at the adjacent New Look.

"A bit of a granny hat, that one," Ginge said when I showed her this. Consequently I'm referring to this one as 'boho granny', with the hat and the glasses and the old lady shawl which I saw in Matalan. Those boots from Modcloth are just amazing, aren't they?

Wedge trainers is not normally my thing, but it's just a nod towards Soufflé Girl in that first Doctor Who episode of this series; I thought they looked cool on her. Perhaps you'll recognise the epic Portal Companion Cube t-shirt from an old wishlist post, and only I, the ultimate matching Nazi, would pair it with some cow socks.

Some girl at school wore skinnies with a nude blazer and matching flat brogues, so this set is sort of inspired by her. Whoever she is. I fell in love with those wedges from Modcloth the moment I set eyes on them - the style, colour and textures are just perfect.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

I discovered this site when looking for sources for my otherwallpaper posts. Simple Desktops is absolutely brimming with crisp, clean-cut wallpapers which are, like it says on the tin, simple, but profound, too.

Saturday, 22 September 2012

This time I'm introducing you to a Chinese girl living in Norway, and one of my favourite fashionistas on Lookbook, Michelle Pan. She may say she's just a boring student, but her collection of outfits on Lookbook are far from boring. With her fun and quirky style, influenced by Japanese styles like lolita, Michelle doesn't limit herself with labels, and is free as a bird.

If, like me, you can't get enough of Michelle's style, she also posts pictures of her clothes on her Tumblr, Space Android. So, let's get to know her.

I love travelling to big cities, but I dont like going to tropical, beach places at all. It's so much more fun and interesting to explore the city, go shopping and see attractions instead of relaxing on the beach. I also recently became the PR manager of our university organisation/club, Verdande, which is a club for us few girl studying computer science here in our institute. So I have a pretty busy life between school, organisation work and my part-time job.

In tenth grade I was the only girl my year that didn't wear any makeup, and I didn't really care too much about fashion. Everything kinda started when I became interested in emo fashion, which produced some is pretty fail and really embarrassing (but hilarious) outfits to look back at. I soon found out about manga, which presented me to Japanese fashion like lolita, decora and stuff like that, and joined the local J-fashion forum. I loved that forum, and still do even thought it was shut down some months ago, and I have no idea how my style would have been without it. And then my style just evolved from there.

I've said before that I don't usually really like lolita on real people on the streets, but I have to say that judging from the pictures on your Tumblr, you really do pull it off rather nicely.

3. What do you love about fashion?

The thing I love most about fashion is to come up with new outfits and clothing. It's the creativity and thoughts you put into the process, like finding out what pieces that will work together, and what would improve the look. For me, the most fun part is to make the outfit, not to wear it.

My favourite right now is probably my latest look, 'Legs on Fire', because I just adore those fire tights. I also like the mix of a cute peter pan collar dress and more tough fire tattoo tights. My other favorites are 'Dots and Argyle' and 'On a Trip', because I like to try out different styles all the time, but in the end it's always the outfits with simple dresses that are my favourites.

I especially love how you style your simple dresses up with knockout tights like those fiery ones - they are awesome, by the way.

5. What do you think of the street fashion where you live?

Most people here dress really casual, as I sometimes feel overdressed when I'm just wearing a nicer dress and heels, but there are also people who are the most fashionable ever. I would say most people are at least decent, and then there are some girl and boys that are amazing. Oslo isn't really the biggest capital in the world, but people here are pretty open-minded to different styles and fashion.

I usually shop in chain stores here in Norway, like H&M, Gina Tricot, Bik Bok and others, but I also buy from those Chinese sellers that have a lot of Asian-styled clothing on eBay. And then about once in a year I go to Hong Kong to have fun and shop a lot, because Hong Kong is the best place for shopping on Earth!

7. Who are your fashion icons?

It's hard to decide who's my fashion icon, because I don't really have a single person or brand as my icon. I usually find all my inspiration from different places on the internet.

I'm starting on my second year this semester, and I think we are the best school in the world. It's a pretty nerdy institute, like it used to be Starcraft tournaments playing on big screen in our coffee bar/pub everyday (until the Starcraft players got chased away from taking too much space). It doesn't really get more nerdy than that I guess. Currently I'm in a group working on making a new activity for a children's museum, and we're going to deliver a prototype that we think will bring interaction and fun for their young guests.

I've always thought that in an alternate universe, I'd be one of those smelly blokes in video game t-shirts building computers and going to gaming tournaments. And the museum project sounds fascinating - working on something for children must be fun.

Thursday, 20 September 2012

Thanks to my old interest in Japanese pop culture and my long, long use of the internet, I noticed the lolita fashion subculture many years ago, and loved designing excessively full and frilly dresses adorned with ribbons and lace. It probably began my interest in Victorian fashion too.

Lolita is a Victorian-inspired style of clothing characterised by cupcake silhouettes, petticoats, Mary Janes, frills and lace. There are countless styles and themes within this style, like gothic, sweet, classic and punk.

Years ago my favourite style within this subculture was gothic lolita. While I used to look at it on the internet and draw designs, I never dressed in it, though to this day I still love full skirts, long socks, chokers and lace gloves. I actually have a lovely black bead choker from Claire's, and awesome elbow-length fingerless lace gloves, though I don't wear them often at all, unfortunately.

Now, however, I like classic lolita most, as it looks least costume-like. While some people do wear quite elaborate lolita outfits day-to-day, usually I find it looks vaguely silly and excessive in my eyes; consequently I prefer lolita in art or in photoshoots. On the other hand, I would love to incorporate elements of lolita into my own wardrobe.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Just a few screenies from the last Doctor Who, 'A Town Called Mercy' from BBC iPlayer HD. I liked the moral conflict the writers tried to bring in, though I don't like how there's no explanation for what made the Doctor suddenly dismiss his usual... policy... with bad guys.

Did you like Amy Pond's pineapple dress? Or do you think the most stylish person in the episode was the Doctor, in his cowboy hat and badge?

Sunday, 16 September 2012

At the moment I have a cycle of three wallpapers on my desktop computer at home, and am immensely happy with them. In the privacy of my own computer room, I can afford to picker wallpapers which are a little brighter and more eyecatching. (If I catch you looking at my computer monitor at school, I will destroy you. In my mind.) Click resolutions for sources again.

I came across this breathtaking watercolour while researching Miyazaki as part of my art exam. The films' plots are usually too random for me to really fall in love with Studio Ghibli, but I enjoy them all the same. My favourite is Princess Mononoke, though I quite like Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbour Totoro (which I watched the other week with my Wifey) is uneventful but adorable. Subbed, never dubbed - yeah, America is great at everything and rule the world and all that crap, but their voice actors need their mouths duct-taped shut. Permanently. Forever. And ever. And ever.

Skyward Sword's art is spectacular - I like the style much better than Twilight Princess' and Ocarina of Time's. The sweeping vastness of the land above the clouds, emphasised by the fisheye distortion, makes for an epic painting. I have a poster of part of this scene on my bedroom wall. It was from the only Nintendo magazine I've ever bought. The magazine reads like a really long advert, but the two Zelda posters - the reason why I bought the thing in the first place - was worth the money.

This last one is obviously not watercolour like the others, but I love it to death. I can't be the only one who thinks this is a great wallpaper, because it's the background image of the official Xenoblade Chronicles character page on the Nintendo website. Xenoblade's art style is amazing too - it makes everyone beautiful, and because this game was translated by Brits - YAY - they all sound beautiful too. No crappy American whining and screaming that makes rivers of blood flow from my ears! The actual game's graphics are more than a little last decade, but it's a sacrifice worth making for the immense, explorer-friendly world the game is set in.

Say hello to my superb strawberry socks my best friend and Wifey got me for my birthday. I noticed they match my DIY shorts perfectly and I'm glad I found an outfit to really show them off because they are amazing.

When I sneakily printed off some pictures of my favourite BBC shows in my last IT lesson on the laserjet printer, my favourite was this photo above, which is stuck proudly on my bedroom wall where an empty hole in posters used to gape at me. Though they're not being filmed, the Doctor and Pond look so at ease, and are smiling so naturally. I miss them.

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

After our visit to the Roman baths, we didn't have a lot of time for the fashion museum nearby, which was terribly sad, but we did spend a few minutes in an exhibition of the costumes worn by actors playing royalty.

They were so elaborate and detailed, they didn't have that tacky feel that costumes usually have at all. Though, some very prestigious actors probably wore them, so only the best will do. I would have loved to read the descriptions of the costumes, and the information about the kings and queens that wore them, but with the little time I had I feasted my eyes on the costumes themselves.

The dress above is quite recognisable as something that Queen Elizabeth I would have worn. I love the draping pearls and the standing ruff.

From a distance I recognised the ensembles below as from King's Speech, probably because I remembered Mrs. Lovett wearing that blue dress. (I do like Helena Bonham Carter.)

I am guessing that the above left is a Queen Victoria dress, and the right, another Queen Elizabeth I dress. If you zoom in, you can see the delicious detail of the pattern of that lovely light grey fabric.

Sunday, 9 September 2012

This time I will grudgingly admit to myself the futility of hiding the name of the place where these photos were taken. I will, however, openly admit that this day trip was several weeks ago, in the last bank holiday weekend. As I mentioned before, I forgot my camera at my sister's house - disaster! - so can only upload these now.

As it was a bank holiday weekend, and a glorious day at that, there were masses of people in that little tourist town that day. The queue for the baths looked long, but felt considerably shorter due to the busking violinist in the square nearby. He must have been awfully warm, in black long-sleeved attire. He played some Bach, I remember. We applauded.

Our wait was rewarded by a very beautiful hall in which tickets were sold for the baths.

Inside the baths, the water is indeed as green as it appears in all of the photos I've seen of the place in the past. Inside the museum, I tasted it. It was warm, and disgusting. But at least now I can say I've tasted Roman bath water!

After our visit, we ate at Subway, because we are sophisticated and I never get to eat Subway, then spent the last few minutes at the fashion museum. But that's going to be another post because I'm busy with school, so until then.